The entertainer of the year nominee will be back in the spotlight again Wednesday night when he kicks off the awards show, which airs at 7 p.m. live from Bridgestone Arena, with his recent No. 1 hit “That’s My Kind of Night.” Bryan will return later in the show for a second performance, the television debut of his new single, the ballad “Drink a Beer.”

The song deals with loss of a loved one and Bryan will dedicate the performance to his brother Chris, who died in 1996, and his sister Kelly, who passed away in 2007.

ASCAP President Paul Williams poses with George Strait at the ASCAP Country Awards at the Music City Center on Monday. Click the photo to see more pictures from the awards show. (photo: Sanford Myers / The Tennessean)

ASCAP, a performing rights organization that represents songwriters, honored Strait with the Founder’s Award, its most prestigious award reserved for those who have made “pioneering contributions to music by inspiring and influencing their fellow music creators.”

“It’s like Gene Kelly didn’t invent dance but by God he could dance,” said ASCAP President Paul Williams. “And whether (George Strait) writes one song or now settles into a career of writing thousands of great songs, the fact is that there is such pure authentic emotion and strength in his voice. There’s something about the pure cowboy strength in what he does. It takes me to a place where music at its best is what it’s about.”

Songwriter Dean Dillon can remember the day that he says his life changed forever.

It was 1979. Dillon was sitting on the porch of a building on 18th Avenue and a guy pulled up in his car and said, “Hey, I’m fixin’ to (record) this kid from Texas.”

That kid was George Strait. Strait — who will be honored with ASCAP’s Founder’s Award tonight — went on to record 54 of Dillon’s songs over the next three decades.

Dillon will be honored with BMI’s Icon Award Tuesday night during the performing rights organization’s 61st annual country awards. The honor is given to “songwriters who have had a unique and indelible influence on generations of music makers.”

“If you had a hit song, the last person on earth you were going to pitch it to was some unknown artist,” Dillon said of the late ’70s era. “When I heard about him, I was a outlaw anyway. I broke every rule there was to break and didn’t give a hoot about what other people thought. So I pitched George everything I had and the kitchen sink. He wound up cutting six songs of mine on that first album. He never forgot that, that we were virtually the only ones who would give him anything.”

In addition to writing hits for Strait including “The Chair,” “Nobody in His Right Mind Would Have Left Her” and “Ocean Front Property,” he also penned songs including Toby Keith’s “It’s a Little Too Late” and “I’m Alive,” recorded by Kenny Chesney and Dave Matthews.

“Since I was old enough to feel emotion and learn how it felt to hurt … I’ve been to able to take that emotion and put it into a song to where you can actually write it down on a piece of paper and look at it and deal with it,” Dillon said. “Songs have been my best friend. It’s been an amazing journey. When I picture this in my head and I see Dolly, Willie, Kris Kristofferson and then Dean Dillon at the end of that, I don’t know. It’s like, ‘Really? That name goes up there?’ But at the same time, you have to understand that my whole life for better or worse, I gave to country music. It’s all I ever did.”

The Nashville Symphony was one of 19 American orchestras honored at the ceremony, which, according The League and ASCAP, include programs of all sizes that challenge the audience, build repertoire and increase interest in contemporary music.

Over the past decade, several Music Row labels, studios and related businesses have relocated to other areas of Nashville or to surrounding communities, causing a noticeable change in the area’s look and feel. Click to see a slideshow on Music Row.(photo: John Partipilo / The Tennessean)

The house at the corner of 16th Avenue South and Tremont Street has served Mary Hilliard Harrington well for six years. From that post in the Music Row neighborhood, she has watched as her company, The Green Room PR, a music industry-focused public relations firm, has tripled in size and come to count Tim McGraw, Jason Aldean and Dierks Bentley as clients.

But the little house has become restrictive as The Green Room has grown. So Harrington is trading in the quaint office space next month for a contrasting view of exposed brick, high ceilings and an open floor plan.

The move means giving up the firm’s address in a neighborhood long favored by the music industry for a mailbox in the emerging SoBro neighborhood. Fifteen years ago, such a decision would have seemed to fly in the face of logic. Today, though, Harrington is on trend. Continue reading →

Jim Lauderdale wins the Inspiration Award at the SESAC Awards in 2010. The Nashville-based performing rights organization has been sold to a private equity firm for $600 million, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal. (photo: Jae S. Lee / The Tennessean)

Nashville-based performing rights organization SESAC has been sold to a private equity firm for $600 million, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal.

The company, originally the Society of European Stage Authors & Composers, had been for sale since early 2012. The buyer is Rizvi Traverse Management, a Birmingham, Mich.-based company, according to the story, which cites anonymous sources.Continue reading →

ASCAP Songwriter of the Year Ben Hayslip performs at the 2012 ASCAP awards.(Photo: Dipti Vaidya / The Tennessean)

Ever wonder exactly what ASCAP Songwriter of the Year Ben Hayslip was thinking when he penned songs like “Gimmie That Girl” and “Honey Bee?”

Today, 650 AM WSM debuts a show that will offer music fans just that insight, with “The ASCAP Songwriters Show.”

It will air Wednesdays 2-3 p.m. and each week will feature an ASCAP songwriter, who will share stories behind songs they have written, play live in the studio and reveal new songs currently being pitched to today’s artists.

Today’s premiere will spotlight Hayslip and publisher Rusty Gaston (This Music/Warner Chappell). On Monday, at the 50th Annual ASCAP Country Awards, Hayslip won his second consecutive Songwriter of the Year prize, and his “Honey Bee” — written with Rhett Akins and recorded by Blake Shelton — shared a Country Song of the Year award.

“More than possibly any other radio station in America, 650 AM WSM understands that it all begins with a songwriter,” WSM General Manager Tom English said in a release. “After all, the phrase ‘Music City USA’ was coined on our airwaves, and we are thrilled to partner with ASCAP and Regions Bank to provide this one-of-a-kind showcase of incredible Nashville talent on our one-of-a-kind radio station.”

Songwriters on upcoming shows include Dave Turnbull, Odie Blackmon, Jeff Allen, Hannah Dasher, Josh Osborn, Trevor Rosen, James LeBlanc and Lynn Hutton. A calendar of show guests is available at http://www.wsmonline.com.

Click to see a photo gallery from the 50th annual ASCAP Country Music Awards program. Here, Lyle Lovett, center, is honored with the Creative Voice Award. (Photo: Dipti Vaidya/The Tennessean).

Ben Hayslip won his second consecutive Songwriter of the Year prize, and his “Honey Bee” — written with Rhett Akins and recorded by Blake Shelton — shared a Country Song of the Year award with “Barefoot Blue Jean Night” at the 50th Annual ASCAP Country Awards.

“I keep talking about the 29th year of my life, and it’s just been life-changing,” Paslay said before the Monday-night awards ceremony at Gaylord Opryland Resort. “‘Barefoot Blue Jean Night’ started people off recording other songs I’ve written. It’s pretty amazing how that song has catapulted other songs.”

Shelton’s “Honey Bee” also topped the “Billboard” Hot Country chart, and it earned Shelton a Grammy nomination for best country solo vocal performance.

Monday was a big evening as well for Brad Paisley, who notched his third ASCAP Country Songwriter/Artist of the Year win. Sony/ATV/EMI triumphed as ASCAP’s Music Publisher of the Year, and Sirius/XM Radio received a Partners in Music award.

Click here to see a photo gallery from the 2012 ASCAP Country Music Awards red carpet. Shown here, Charles Kelley and Dave Haywood of Lady Antebellum. (Photo: Dipti Vaidya / The Tennessean)

ASCAP President Paul Williams, himself a heavily awarded songwriter with credits including “Rainy Days and Mondays” and “We’ve Only Just Begun,” presided over an evening that included numerous performances and career achievement honors for writers Bob McDill and Lyle Lovett.

“I know that it’s an award for old fellas that thought ASCAP had forgotten all about them, and they find out they haven’t forgotten about them,” McDill said. “I’ve been retired for 12 years. This is like old home week. It’s a lot of fun.”

Lyle Lovett was a major label country artist for a time, but his mark has been more master songsmith than hit-maker. Lovett songs including “If I Were The Man You Wanted,” “Closing Time,” “The Waltzing Fool” and “Family Reserve” drew the respect of songwriting elders including Guy Clark, Eric Taylor and Townes Van Zandt, and Lovett’s recordings served (and serve still) as a template for the now-burgeoning Americana movement. Clark, Robert Earl Keen, Sam Bush and Jon Randall performed in his honor as Lovett received the Creative Voice Award.

“I wouldn’t be here tonight if it weren’t for Guy Clark,” Lovett said, noting that Clark pitched Lovett songs to producer/executive Tony Brown even before Clark and Lovett had met. “He’s my songwriting hero, and my personal hero. To have him take part tonight means the world to me.”

Golden Note honoree: Bob McDill. ASCAP's Golden Note Award is presented to songwriters, composers and artists who have achieved extraordinary career milestones. Past recipients include Don Williams, Garth Brooks, Lindsey Buckingham, Alan Jackson, Reba McEntire and JD Souther, among others. Throughout a career spanning more than three decades, Texas-born songwriter McDill has written an exceptional 31 number one songs, garnered four Grammy nominations, earned the ASCAP Songwriter of the Year Award in 1994, was named the NSAI Songwriter of the Year three times and was inducted into the NSAI’s Hall of Fame in 1985.

Creative Voice Award: Lyle Lovett. The prestigious ASCAP Creative Voice Award is presented to ASCAP members whose significant career achievements are equally informed by their creative spirit and by their contributions to the role that a music creator can play in the greater community. Lovett joins a select group of ASCAP members who have previously received this award, including Wyclef Jean, Green Day and Metallica.

LOS ANGELES — A group led by Sony Corp. said Friday it has purchased Britain’s EMI Music Publishing for $2.2 billion from Citigroup, creating the world’s largest music copyrights company with a catalog that includes hits from Motown, The Beatles, Jay-Z and Norah Jones.

Now all that remains of the storied British label group is its recorded music division, which Vivendi’s Universal Music Group has offered to buy for $1.9 billion. That deal is being looked at by European and U.S. regulators. If they approve some time later this year, the world’s major music companies will be reduced from four to three.

Recorded music companies have argued that they need to combine resources to survive in an industry crippled by piracy, as the legitimate digital distribution of music is still in its infancy around the globe.Continue reading →